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MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
You missed a golden opportunity to use the thread subtitle "...and all the pieces matter".

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MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Little Man was bugging out.

If you stayed cool and kept your mouth shut you would usually be ok. Unless you're D'Angelo.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Probably best exemplified by Prop Joe saying that a west side niggas idea of running away is running across the city to the east side.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Does anyone in The Wire actually pronounce it "Ballmer" ?

It happens all the time in Homicide.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

escape artist posted:


Just the natives.


They should all be natives, damnit.

My immersion. :cry:

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
True. Herc gets a pass for axing questions of people.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
I do like the way it came about though. Rather than him try to put on a (most likely) terrible Baltimore accent the producers just let him use his normal accent and then came up with the backstory for him.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Well, The Wire "missed out" on a lot things because David Simon wisely chose to make a tv show about the things he actually knows.

I guess that is why the war on drugs (sub-)narrative doesn't really concern itself with prisons beyond trying to get people in there. And people leaving it.

It would be great to see a show with the intensity and seriousness of The Wire tackling prison life but I doubt it would ever happen.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xiL95jR44E

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
I think you guys are reading too much into the Rawls bar scene.

The guy just wanted a quiet drink.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

escape artist posted:

He's legitimately the only "country" artist I like, but I love him.

You sound like a man who has never listened to Waylon Jennings.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

escape artist posted:

I have not. Got a couple of song recommendations that I could maybe Youtube? Just to get a little taste.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKV7vt1kHnk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ31JD51wXQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mw4ImMUmQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2LJkBtMm1c (technically a Kris Kristofferson song but whatever)

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
He's a pretty good drug addict on Oz too.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
It is called shoulder surfing. He isn't listening to the tones but actually just covertly looking at Bernard pressing the keys.

Hence his comment about one number being either one or the other and he isn't quite sure due to the small keypads these days.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

escape artist posted:

No, they're the same thing, and it's really off-putting for Atheist addicts like myself who have to bow their heads and pray for God to give us strength, etc.

Step #1 is to admit you're powerless over your addiction... Step #2 is to turn yourself over to a higher power. So I guess, by that logic, I should just... turn myself over to painkillers and liquor?

You sound oddly like Doug Stanhope when he talks about AA, are you as angry as him too? :v:

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
I believe the proper spelling is heh-rawn.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

nwin posted:

Couple questions about season 2 that I still can't wrap my head around, even though I'm on my fourth or fifth rewatch.

Currently watching Episode 10, "Storm Warnings"

1) The FBI guy from San Francisco. He gets called about the electronics shop owner (Gleikas) and then next thing I know he's busting the container full of raw. Was this one of the good containers that was supposed to get delivered to the greeks but they gave it up to to get the scent off them? How are the greeks and the FBI guy connected?

2) Stringer wants good product from Prop Joe. Avon says gently caress no, not gonna share territory. Stringer does it anyways. Avon gets Brother Mouzzone out as protection for the towers. So now, what it looks like to me is Prop Joe is thinking 'wtf happened? I had a deal with Stringer to share territory and my nephew just got shot'. That part isn't making sense at all either.

Anything?

In episode 9, which is where they tip off Agent Koutris, The Greek and Spiros are talking about how their Colombian cartel partners are unreliable so as a thank you to Koutris for tipping them off about the wiretap (remember, Fitz called Koutris and asked about Double G earlier in the episode) they give him this huge drug bust. It doesn't hurt them in any way and it makes life easier for their man inside the FBI.

As for Prop Joe he is a smart man. He knows who Mouzone is and since he is protecting Avons turf he also knows that Stringer didn't hire him. He correctly deduces that Stringer also can't actively do anything to move against Mouzone which is why they come up with the whole Omar thing.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
I don't remember the episode but at one point Butchie remarks that Avon is pure evil, like his father. So clearly he doesn't really like Avon or see him as one to do business with.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Avon knew there was a limit to what you could do without the police coming down on you hard and he played within those limits while trying to maximise the profits and his reputation on the street.

Marlo didn't care for rules, to a degree at least, since he was still hiding bodies rather than just dropping people. Money was a secondary thing to Marlo, something that just happened to come alongside his reputation and power.

Stringer "just" wanted to make money. He had correctly identified that once you get far enough removed from the street the police stops being an issue altogether, he just couldn't convince Avon that it was the right path to take.

As has been mentioned (and we've been over this a couple of times in the various Wire threads) Stringer isn't really as smart as he thinks he is, he just read some marketing and business strategy at the community college and he's lording that over the street level guys who barely went to school. He has some of the right ideas though and the whole New Day Co-Op. Mainly that corners don't matter, product does and one of his biggest victories was probably getting the street level dealers to accept that when normally they would just get to fighting each other.

He is still incredibly naive when it comes to actual real business though, as shown by his encounter with Clay Davis and the entire construction project. He is entirely unaccustomed to people not jumping when he says jump.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

exmachina posted:

Isn't brother Mouzone based on the suspect in 2pac's murder? As in there was an identikit photo that was published by the police that is a ringer for Brother and was described as wearing a bowtie.

Edit: Biggie, not 2pac



That is the suspect sketch of the person that killed Biggie. But I doubt Mouzone was based on that.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

comes along bort posted:

Actually, Prince George's County is significantly larger than Baltimore (and has been for almost 20 years) and more importantly a lot wealthier since it's a DC suburb. In the past decade especially gentrification's pushed out a lot of the former black residents of DC, but the inflated real estate values gave them a lot of money that goes a lot further out in PG, which is in large part why it's the wealthiest majority black county in the country, with about a third the poverty rate of Baltimore's. All of which makes it really weird that's the place the show singled out as being in similar dire straits when it was going through a boom period when the show was produced.

This might simply be a function of the show being based on older source material, since there are a lot of instances where it doesn't seem like David Simon really updated things from his book and the various stories/people he knew from back then.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Season 2 is secretly the best season. But yeah, it definitely needs a re-watch before you can truly appreciate it.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
It's a perfectly reasonable reaction to have. Season 1 was intense and you didn't get the full closure you would expect from a "normal" cop show, so you're looking to season 2 and getting disappointed that they're in an entirely new part of town.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Dominic West is turning into Garry Shandling it seems.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Lester might seem like a nice guy, but he's sort of a dick.

He basically hauled McNulty back from the happy place he had gone to in season 4 just because he couldn't resist one more chance to gently caress the bosses. Jimmy had stopped drinking, had gotten together with Beadie and settled down. He was happy. Lester ruined all that.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
The difference is that Lester knows he can just retire and walk away if things start to go bad. Jimmy has a long time to go before he can do that.

Its the same with Bunny. He does the whole Hamsterdam thing because he knows he can retire.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

Jerusalem posted:

McNulty explicitly retires. That's what the whole scene with the wake is about, and Landsman pointing out that he wasn't on the force long enough to qualify for a pension.

I don't think McNulty knows what he is going to do now that he's no longer police, he just knows that the job isn't just unhealthy for him but actively doesn't want him anymore. Wherever he ends up, he's likely to be in a better place emotionally for it.

Jimmy was happy as a patrolman though. Before he got pulled back in.

But you can't tell me that Bunny would pull a stunt like Hamsterdam if he was 5-10 years out from retirement with pension. Same with Lester and the subpoenas and illegal wiretap.

They were fed up with not being doing the job in what they felt was a proper way.
McNulty basically just wanted the bosses and criminals to know how big his dick was.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Stringer wanted the profile of a legit businessman, because he wanted to actually be able to spend all his money out in the open.

Prop Joe in his words, kept things dead boring. He kept a low profile because that way the cops didn't know about him and I assume it suited his lifestyle.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
To me it seemed very much like Valchek and Frank grew up in the same neighbourhood. Frank even refers to him as "Charlie Valchek's little pissant brother" so he obviously knows him as more than just a police officer.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
If you don't love Johnny Burns and Dan Dority in Deadwood then there is something broken inside of you.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

frenton posted:

Forgive my ignorance but why can't they release the show in 16:9? They have 16:9 HD episodes of Seinfeld and it's an older show. Fuckin' HD, how does it work??

Man, I would kill for the Wire on Blu Ray.

Most likely because David Simon doesn't want it.

quote:

And perhaps the final contrast to the rest of high-end episodic television, The Wire for each of its five seasons has been produced in good old fashioned 4 x 3 standard definition. DP Dave Insley recalled, "The reason the show has stayed 4x3 is because David Simon thinks that 4x3 feels more like real life and real television and not like a movie. The show's never been HD, even 4x3 HD and that (SD) is how it is on the DVDs. There is no 16x9 version anywhere." As a viewer with an HD set I will point out that like much of SD television that makes its way to HD channels, it appears that HBO utilizes state-of-the-art line doubling technology. It may still be standard definition, but line doubled it looks considerably better on a high definition set than it would on a standard definition set.

Insley explained, "When the show started 2001 / 2002 they framed it for 16 x 9 as a way of future-proofing. Then a couple of seasons ago, right before Season 4 began shooting, there was a big discussion about it and after much discussion -- David, Nina, Joe Chappelle, the Producers, the DPs -- and we discussed what should be the style of the show. David made the decision that we would stay with 4x3. The DPs pretty much defined the look to be what it is now. And it's been consistent for the past two seasons."

from: http://library.creativecow.net/articles/griffin_nick/hbo_the_wire.php

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Slim Charles and his speech to Avon is also so clearly about the Iraq war that it almost hurts.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
If all of you haven't watched Homicide: Life on the Street you really should get on that. It's really good and it has Munch when he still gave a poo poo.

It is sadly a pretty overlooked show, probably because it is kinda old at this point.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Season 2 is secretly the best season.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

bucketybuck posted:

Didn't Omar get that info from reading the details wall charts?

Nah, he got that from Prop Joe in the episode with the East vs West basketball game. Omar robbed a stash and went to Joe to exchange it for info about how to reach Avon.

He got some info from the board, but mostly about Stinkum I think.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Imagine if Herc had never been pulled for that detail in season one and just kept on "bustin' heads" in the western district. That is basically Colicchio.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
Landsman might also just have come up under Valchek and feels some sense of loyalty toward him, while obviously also playing the office politics game.

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
The various names for the drugs are great.

In one of the seasons they're selling Greenhouse Gas.

"Greenhouse gas is hot, yo!" :q:

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo
That is still one of my favourite things about the whole Stringer arc. He's out there trying to be all business like, getting away from the street and then he finds out that Clay Davis has been playing him and he just snaps right back to the gangbanger mindset.

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MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

The SituAsian posted:

Im actually of the opinion that it never could have happened. For "just" a Maryland state senator Davis wielded tremendous power and killing him would have meant the complete destruction of the Barksdales root and stem.
Avon dismissing it so quickly despite the fact that it was the organizations money that was lost tells me he knew this and never would have allowed it.

Stringer was reaching beyond Avon to hire out hitters, he didn't care about what Avon said or wanted. Stringer felt played (because he was) and he wanted to show the business world that you don't play a guy like Stringer Bell. He didn't really appear to think much beyond the immediate revenge and certainly didn't think about the repercussions of what he was doing.

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